Fire and Ice
by Princess of Elves
Summary: When Akycha discoveres a dragon egg, she finds herself drawn into an adventure, she never thought possible.If it weren't enugh already, a wannabemagist claims the dragon to be rightfully his. But then they have to face an even greater enemy...R&R please!
1. Chapter 1

Prologue

The Black Dragon was furious. How dare any human being come into her cave! With her mate dead and her egg not even near to hatching she was all alone, but she saw it in a positive way. Food was scarce here, and her colour made her even more obvious to a human's eye.

They must have followed her, she concluded, and how well armed they were! But she had dealt with humans before, and would deal just as easily with these.

They were warriors, she knew from their weapons and dressing style. But trained or not, they would be easily defeated. Baring her teeth as she went to the entrance her low, warning growl echoed through the cave. The humans were young adults and tried to keep her at bay with –so she thought- despicable little spear that wouldn't even puncture her scales. With an enthusiastic snarl, she thrust the first one out of the cave, the second one following shortly after his companion. Outside of her cave, she halted abruptly. That smell…it was the smell of blood. Near her cave entrance lay the body of her friend and companion. It was Sheba, the snow owl, killed by an arrow, her beak still open as if shrieking a warning cry. _That's it!_ , the black dragon thought enraged and frustrated at the same time,_ they shall pay! _ Now the black dragon pounced on one of the warriors, killing him with her sheer weight. His companion reacted swiftly, thrusting his spear bravely at her. It missed her rib cage, but went through her wing instead. She screamed in pain. Not only had the spear ripped through her wing, but also stuck in between her two wings, the one place where she could be killed instantly. But, miraculously, she didn't die. Though thrown hard, the spear didn't go deep enough to kill her, at least not right away, she presumed. Suddenly tired she snapped at the warrior, who let out a cry of pain, before he died. The black dragon thought of Sheba, and how she –unlike this warrior- couldn't at least give out a last warning cry. A tear dropped onto the velvety soft feathers of her loyal companion. With one last thrilling cry, that sounded more like a heavy sigh of a wooden flute, blown into softly by the passing wind, she gave Sheba the last honor. After doing so, the black dragon quickly went into the cave and got out the egg. She knew she didn't have much time. As best as she could, she dragged herself through the snow, far away from her cave, and Sheba. When she thought she couldn't walk one more step, she curled up and let the egg rest beside her.

Soon she was covered in snow from the rough storm, her black scales should shine no more in the light of the sun on the everlasting whiteness of the snow and ice she loved so much. So did the great black dragon die. She didn't know that her young one would be saved and wrapped up in a tumult of adventures, not knowing that, soon a helping hand would come for the little one. But she did know that the young dragon in the egg would survive. Unlike Sheba, or the warriors she killed defending the young dragon in its egg, she died with a smile on her face, knowing she would be with her mate, soon.

Through the icy storm a single dog team runs. The musher shouts orders in the old language and his breath and that of his dogs rose steaming from their panting mouths and his own. All of a sudden, the musher shouted, he shouted because of the loud wind of the storm, to his lead dogs "Whoa, Luna! Whoa, Sam!" The two dogs did as they were told and skittered to a stop. The musher got off of the skis -before checking the brake, of course- and went to an unusually formed little ball of snow. It wasn't really a ball at all, more of an oval. The musher flipped back his hood and let the mass of blond hair under it escaped its tight bonds. The musher was, in fact, a girl. Her gloved hands easily picked up the object and surveyed it curiously. Then she put the oval object into the storage area in front of the skis and got back on. "Hike!" she yelled, and the dogs pulled hard, to get the sled going. But the girl was entirely somewhere else in her mind. She knew what this was, and she knew who to talk to. But would he listen to her?

**This is jus the prologue and thus will not be very long. However, the next chapter will be, so thanks for reading and please review!-thank you! **


	2. Chapter 2

The house of the healer was dark and hot. There were tokens and charms everywhere. Even from they ceiling there hung some herbs and more charms. Akycha knew, that the healer despised of her. She was her parent's second child. But her older brother died, long ago in an accident on a cliff. Ever since that incident, her mother was overprotective of her, and her father taught her –after long pleading and begging- the ways of surviving in the cold snow plains and mountains. She was ten, when her father let her drive the dog sled. Ever since that one day, Akycha loved to take the dogs out for a ride and the dogs loved to go, too. But many did not approve of her being trained in all the "rude" trades of the men, but most of all, the healer. He hated seeing her doing a man's work and indicated so, by making rude comments about her not being raised properly and never had an ounce of respect for her.

"Well come on already, we haven't got all day you know" came the healers voice from the back of the room. He sounded disgusted, at the prospect of having to talk to her yet again. Akycha noted this with a small smile. She had no distaste for the healer. He did his job well. As for the tone he used to speak with her, she didn't really care about it.

Slowly she made her way towards him and sat down in the chair in front of his working area. Behind which he sat in a throne like chair, rich with carved patterns of swirls and the like. "Now, what is it, you wanted to talk to me about?" he asked her with no less coldness in his voice, than before. She chose to ignore it. "I have found something, out on the plains", she had gone over the story a thousand times in her head. "I was exercising my fathers' team, when I saw a strange snow mount in the middle of the plain. I stopped at it and saw a small, oval object lying next to it and immediately recognized it from your stories. It was a dragon egg." She stopped there and let her last words sink in for a while, like she had seen him do it at night by the fire, while he was telling a story. "I picked it up and looked at it, when I realized that the mound was its mother…dead", again she paused, but not for the same reason. It had broken her heart to see the two like that in the snow. She fought the tears that were trying to well her eyes. When she had regained control, she continued "I took the egg and warmed it the whole way. All I ask, is for you to look at it and tell me whether it will live or not"

The healer watched her with his cold, almost black eyes and considered her and the situation for quite some time. "Where is it?" was all he said, and he looked at her more intently now than he had before. Akycha fumbled at the small pouch that was now bulging with its contents. Carefully she took the egg out. It was white, almost as white as the snow, but it also had its blue shimmer to it. When the light of the candle's light struck it, it seemed to glow in its radiating warmth.

She saw it with amusement as the healers eyes grew wide, but she remembered her first reaction to the eggs glow, so she kept her amusement to herself. The healer reached out to touch the egg, but drew back the moment he did so. "It is not for me to touch", he said quietly and looked first at his hand, then the egg. All of a sudden his frown turned into a sneer. "So, what do you hope comes from this? Do you seek riches? Glory perhaps?" he asked with disdain and scorn. Akycha could se the hatred in his eyes as he spoke and was surprised at it. What had she done wrong? Calmly, but with a slight sharpness in her voice she replied: "I seek nothing of the kind" With that she put the egg back into her pouch to walk off, and turned around one more time. "Unlike you", she added before stalking out of the hut, her chin raised high.

"Healers" she murmured angrily, but then she opened the pouch once more. "Don't you worry, little one. I'll take care of you. He won't be taking you away now." Unconsciously stroking the egg gently across it's gleaming shell, she made her way towards home.


End file.
